The production of filamentary material in packages and the use of that material in continuous lengths is well know. For example, glass is produced in the form of strands and the strands gathered into rovings. These can be chopped to produce short-length fibers or used in continuous lengths as reinforcement in such materials as sheet molding compounds and bulk molding compounds. Inasmuch as the packages in which filamentary material is produced is of limited size, it is the practice to interconnect the end of one package with the beginning of another package to provide for continuity of the strands. "Transfer knots" have been used for such purposes.
However, the use of knots is disadvantageous in that strand choppers are not capable of chopping such knots with the result that the knots pass through the copper and are found almost intact in the material in which they are incorporated and in which they create localized regions of highly packed, undispersed glass. The ultimate consequence is the creation of defects in the part.
Attempts to replace such knots by use of adhesives or splicing have not been successful because such attempts have failed to provide splicings which do not produce localized and visible regions of high glass concentration and non-randomized distribution of the glass in the finished part at the adhesive or splicing.
The present invention is directed to the solution of that problem.